In the 1940s, a nine-year-old Aboriginal boy (Aswan Reid) is taken from the wilds of the outback and brought to a remote Catholic orphanage to be ‘civilised’. There, he meets Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett), a cantankerous alcoholic nun gone rogue who has unofficially taken over the running of the orphanage. Much to her surprise, the boy – who isn’t given a name – appears to possess strange powers, which disrupt the orphanage’s delicately balanced world and soon even has Sister Eileen questioning her faith.

Following her virtuoso turn in last year’s Tár, Cate Blanchett makes a rare return to Australia for none other than Warwick Thornton’s (Sweet Country, Samson and Delilah) latest film. Blanchett is expectedly excellent and Thornton once again takes on writer-director-cinematographer duties with aplomb, but it’s newcomer Aswan Reid who gives the film its magic touch.